Integral Assessment

As  I sat an repeated the Universal Loving Kindness phrases over and over for 10 minutes it reminded me of my Aunt Mary.  She used to say her rosary beads 3 times a day.  When she would do so she was always so relaxed and calm. However, I digress. I felt really at peace repeating these phrases.  I began to envison the world and what it would be like if everyone was happy, healthy, whole, and free of suffering.  What a beautiful world we would be living in.

When completing the second part of the exercise I found that the interpersonal aspect of my life is my current source of difficulty and the area that is ready for growth currently is the biological aspect.  

At this  moment my interpersonal difficulties are centered around the people who are doing repairs in my home.  When things do not go as planned or the technicians do something incorrectly I have a hard time thinking before I speak to them.  I am trying to work on this by doing something I do when I exercise: take 3 deep breaths and move on.  It has been helping somewhat.  I think additional meditation will help me in this area as well.

The area in my life that is ready for growth is biological.  I have been focusing on fitness and nutrition for awhile now, but I am ready to focus on self-regulation so I can move to the next step of wellness.  To implement this I am going to begin to more closely regulate the amount of alcohol I drink and focus on the number of days and amount of time that I put into my workouts. 


Here is to this finding you happy, healthy,and whole!

Rose

The Subtle Mind

Well this week's listening exercise was much more pleasant than last week's.  I did gain really good insight last week into how I chose to ignore a big issue in my life rather than deal with it, but that ultimately left me sad.  This week I was calm and relaxed and really enjoying the focusing on breath and really not paying any direct attention to anything around me until the random voice interrupted to give further instructions.  I found this to be very distracting becasue there were such long pauses between instructions that when there was an instruction I was jolted back to here and now. 

Overall, I feel really calm and energized right now as opposed to last week when I felt really sad.  My only complaint is, and maybe it is because I need more practice, I did not like when the instructor spoke because it brought me back to normal time and I had to refocus myself all over again.

The connection of spiritual and pyhsical health for me is that when I feel connected to something greater than myself I just feel better overall.  When I am sad or tense going to the ocean and being in awe of the immenseness of it calms me.  I think about my tiny part in this huge world and all of my problems melt away.  I feel connceted to the world at the ocean.  For me there is no greater spiritual power than the connection with nature.

Rose

Loving Kindness

Hello all, hope this finds you well.  This is the first of our listening exercises that made me uncomfortable.  I had a hard time initially thinking of someone in my life that has a dark cloud.  Then it hit me like a ton of bricks...my brother who lives in a nursing home after suffering a massive stroke over 4 years ago.  There is alot of history leading up to his stroke as well as why I had written him off.  After listening to the loving  kindness practice I felt sad.  Sad, because though my brother has done some pretty bad things in his life...he still lives as a prisoner in his own body and I have not given him the time of day in over 4 years.  So, I obviously have much work to do in this department. 

I would absolutely recommend this to people.  In just one listen it made me realize something that I had pushed deep down.  I had written off the one person who really and truly needs loving kindness.  Imagine what I might discover after many more practices.  So, others could benefit as well.

A mental work out is much like a physical one.  A mental work out trains the mind to a new and better way of thinking.  Research as shown that we can become healthier when we practice mental fitness.  It allows us to act on our feelings and emotions rather than react to them...simply put...we are in control.  When we are in control of our mind then we have a greater capacity to open ourselves up to the needs of others.

I plan on doing more simple acts of kindness.  If, I can make one stranger smile in a day, it will be a step in the right direction.  I also plan on listening to the loving  kindness mp3 twice a day for one week as suggested.  I think it will really help me to focus on being more thoughtful of others. 

Rose

Wow, on a scale of one through ten I would rate myself:

Physical: 7   I have begun to really cut down on the processed foods that I eat and have started to drink green smoothies and increase my fruit and veggie intake.  My downfall...I am addicted to SUGAR...one battle at a time, though.  I also started a workout diary to find that I only average about 9 workout days monthly.  So, I still need work, but I am headed in the right direction.  My current goal is to increase my number of work out days (I usually run) to at least 15 days per month and go from there.  I could create a workout calender and schedule my workout times each week in order to reach this goal.

Psychological:  8   I usually have a very even temepred personality.  I can handle whatever comes up fairly well without flying off the handle.   There are certain situations where anger gets the best of me and that is usually after I make a bad choice (so I am really angry at myself).  My goal is to learn how to make better choices so there will be no reason to become angry.  In order to reach this goal I need to listen to my heart more often.  I can usually tell that I am about to make a bad choice right before I go through with it.  Meditation to clear my mind of all the clutter could help me to reach this goal.

Spiritual: 4   I have never been religious or given alot of thought to the higher power.  I do however, believe that there is something greater than us out there.  I just have never focused any energy in this direction. My goal is to become more connected with the world.  In order to become more connected I could volunteer my time with the elderly in a nursing home. 


Crime of the Century:  I found this exercise relaxing, in the end.  In the beginning I was losing focus and reeling myself in, but I slowly began to let go.  I did have a hard time envisioning the beams of color at times.  I would say it took me until about half way through to finally come into complete relaxation.  Maybe that is because this week was pretty stressful or maybe because I just wasn't releasing control...I am not sure.  I just kept my focus on his voice and eventually everthing began to melt away and in the end I was relaxed.

Peace and happiness,

Rose